Abstract
The aim of the present research was to investigate the relationship between alienation, stress, self-esteem, Locus of Control, terminal values, sex-role, religiosity and some demographics characteristics (sex, level of education, age, family size, citizenship) in Kuwaiti students. There were 361 participants. Seven measures were used in this study: 1) The Self-Rating Questionnaire, 2) The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, 3) The Self-esteem Scale, 4) The Reid-Ware Three-Factor Internal External Scale, 5) The Value Survey, 6) The Kuwait Sex-Role Inventory (KU-SRI), 7) The A1-Khawaj Religion Scale (AL-RS). The last two scales were especially developed for this study. Literature reviews covered a large number of studies that examined the relationship, but there was an absence of such studies in Arabic societies in general, and Kuwaiti society in particular. Following a pilot study to examine the usefulness of measures, and another to develop both the KU-SRI and the AL-RS, the main study was carried out. The multivariate analysis of the data lead to the hypotheses being confirmed or rejected; Stress was found to be the key role in explaining and predicting alienation and selfsocial-estrangement, with high stress associated with high alienation and selfsocial-estrangement. Masculinity has a major role in explaining social alienation, with a negative association. The main explainer of normlessness is Locus of Control, with negative association with internality. Self-esteem was considered to be the main explainer of meaninglessness, having a negative association with it. There are a small number of terminal values that have a small role in explaining alienation on each of its components. The negative association indicates the importance of values for alienated persons, while the positive association indicates unimportance of that value to the alienated person. Religiosity, even when it has a significant negative association with alienation, does not have a role in explaining it, while it does have a small role in explaining social isolation. The demographic characteristics do not have a significant role in explaining alienation or any of its components. One of the interesting findings of this study was the proposal of ten types of models that explain the relationship between independent and dependent variables. They suggest that stress, masculinity, self-esteem and Locus of Control influence, each in their own special way, other independent variables. These influences are associated with changes in alienation and its components.